


Postcards

by muzivitch



Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-07-05
Updated: 2007-07-05
Packaged: 2017-10-18 10:29:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/187967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/muzivitch/pseuds/muzivitch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Chitose family is on vacation.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Postcards

_**[Fic] Postcards | Prince of Tennis, Tezuka/Miyuki**_  
Title: Postcards  
Author: Mizu [[](http://muzivitch.livejournal.com/profile)[ **muzivitch**](http://muzivitch.livejournal.com/) ]  
Series: Prince of Tennis  
Characters: Tezuka Kunimitsu + Chitose Miyuki; Chitose Senri  
Length: 1340 words  
Rating: G  
Summary: The Chitose family is on vacation.

The Chitose family is on vacation, but instead of renting a house for the month of July and trekking back and forth between the house and the beach like most normal Japanese families, they're touring Japan from Kyuushu to Hokkaido in a beaten-up conversion van. Tezuka Kunimitsu knows all this because every couple of days, like clockwork, a postcard comes addressed to him from a different point of interest in Japan. The first was from Nagasaki.

 _I'm not sure why we didn't just skip Kyuushu and start right on Shikoku,_ was scribbled in surprisingly small and neat handwriting, _Onii-chan and I have probably seen all there's to see of Kyuushu, and I've been in Nagasaki more times than I could count. All the decent tennis tournaments are here._

 _Dad bought a van that's big enough for a month's worth of clothes and tourist junk. It's fine, but sometimes I'm pretty sure it's not going to make it up the big hills._

Tezuka does not toss this postcards, as most of his teammates would expect of him, but carefully places it in the top drawer of his desk.

The next postcard, predictably from Shikoku, depicts a scenic mountain-and-stream picture of "real Japan," and the message on the back is short and to the point:

 _Thief-Bro,_ Miyuki writes, _there is **nothing** to do here,_

And it makes Tezuka smile briefly before he stacks it on top of its predecessor and shuts the drawer with a firm click.

Before long, he's anticipating the cards. They'll be moving onto Honshu next, and he thinks that the most logical first stop will probably be Chigoku, which means Hiroshima, Itsukushima Shrine, Iwakuni Castle. In all likelihood, his next picture will be of the famous view of Itsukushima.

When he pulls the card out of the mailbox a couple of days later, he realizes he's miscalculated: he has a postcard of Kikko Park, the sanctuary for white snakes.

 _The snakes are awesome,_ it reads, _but Onii-chan liked Itsukushima Shrine better. It's pretty, but the snakes are way more cool._

Next is a post card of Todai-ji, with a brief note on the back:

 _We're staying at home for the next couple of days while Dad catches up with some stuff at work,_ Miyuki writes, _but Mom insists that we're still on vacation, so we've hit more tourist attractions in the last day or so than we did the whole time we were in Kyuushu (there weren't any attractions to see in Shigoku =_ =)._

Tezuka knows the vacation has resumed when he gets another postcard in the mail, this one of Fuji-san. Miyuki's scribbles on the back have nothing, for once, to do with what she's been doing, how bored she is, and how annoying Chitose Senri's being during the hours they're stuck in the van:

 _Mom said we get to Tokyo next,_ it says, _and I don't think I can take another shrine._

And then a mobile number. Tezuka stares at it for some time, and the he sighs and pulls his own barely used cell out of his pocket. There's no reason to call her, he thinks; despite two weeks of postcards, and a week being dragged around Kyuushu with her the year before, and meeting her again at Nationals a few weeks after that, he doesn't really know Chitose Miyuki and he doesn't even do most of his friends the courtesy of calling them, as Inui would attest.

"Moshi moshi."

"I got your postcard," Tezuka says, and he can practically see Miyuki bounce on her heels.

Miyuki's voice dips to a whisper, and Tezuka has a sudden image of her ducking out of sight. "Save me, Thief-Bro," she whispers. "They're going to take us to the _Tokyo National Museum_ ," and the horror in her voice is nearly comical.

Before he discovered tennis, Tezuka recalls, he used to haunt the National Museum.

"Go to the museum," he says, his voice calm and stern, and he hears a very soft groan in response. "There's a cafeteria on the third floor," he continues after barely a moment's pause. "I'll be in there at two."

"Will you get me ice cream?"

"Perhaps."

An hour later, he finds himself alone in the museum cafe and has ascertained that while the pickings are slim, they do sell ice cream - fried - in three flavors, vanilla, almond, and green tea. He orders himself a cup of tea and finds a seat with a good view of the door. Miyuki's instantly recognizable when she comes in, with a baseball cap shoved on top of her black hair and a pair of baggy, boysh shorts over long, thin, tanned legs. She's had a growth spurt in the past year, Tezuka notes silently as he takes a sip of his canned tea, a major one, and he wouldn't be surprised if she ended up being not much shorter than he older brother.

Miyuki flops into the chair opposite him, grinning, and waves to flag down a waitress before turning back to Tezuka. "I ducked behind a giant reproduction of one of those Buddhas," she says, "and made a run for it."

Tezuka raises his eyebrows. "You should have told them where you were going."

"That's no fun," Miyuki says, wrinkling her nose, and then she grins up at the waitress. "I want ice cream. What kind of ice cream do they have, Thief-bro?"

"Fried," Tezuka says evenly. "Vanilla, almond, and green tea."

"Almond then." Miyuki leans her elbows on the table as the waitress goes off to bring her her dessert. "Thief-bro," she says with a gusty sigh, "I'm so bored. It would have been more fun staying in Osaka and playing tennis, honest." She grins as the ice cream is set in front of her and digs in. "Stuck in the back seat with Onii-chan isn't any fun after like two days," she says between bites.

He can only imagine, Tezuka thinks dryly as he watches Miyuki demolish her fried ice cream. "Hmm," is all he says out loud.

"I'm crushed," comes an amused voice from behind her, and Tezuka looks up to see Chitose, his thumbs hooked in his jeans and a lazy grin on his face. "First you abandon me to Mom's art lectures, and now you insult me while you're on your date with Tezuka here."

Miyuki makes a face at him and then reverses it, giving him a sunny grin. "Thief-bro is saving me. And he bought me ice cream."

"So I see." Chitose switches his amused look to Tezuka. "Thank you for watching over my sister, Tezuka," he says.

"It was nothing."

"Hmm," Chitose says, and then glances back down at Miyuki. "I managed to convince Mom that you slipped off to the bathroom and got lost on your way back, but you'd better catch up with them or she'll get skeptical."

Miyuki sighs. "I hate museums. And shrines."

Chitose grins and tugs on her hair. "Yeah, I know. Go on ahead." He waits until she's disappeared out the door and dashed around the corner before turning back to Tezuka. "You know," he drawls, "I figured out who she was sending postcards to after about two days."

"Ah."

"Mom still doesn't know," Chitose says, rocking back on his heels. "Tezuka."

"Hmm."

"Take care of my sister." There's a twinkle in his eyes that belies his almost serious tone.

"I am not dating Miyuki, Chitose," Tezuka intones as he pushes his glasses further up on the bridge of his nose. "She's far too young to be seeing anyone, and I am not interested in dating."

Practically an oratory from Tezuka, Chitose muses. "Yeah," he says with a husky chuckle, and turns to follow his sister out of the cafeteria.

"You keep thinking that, Tezuka," he says over his shoulder, "and someday you're going to wake up surprised to realize that it's your wedding day."


End file.
